Shores native guides Little League team in World Series run

Grosse Pointe’s Chad Lorkowski pitches Friday during the first inning of his Great Lakes team’s game against Chula Vista, Calif., in United States pool play at the Little League Baseball World Series tournament in South Williamsport, Pa. (AP Photo/MATT SLOCUM)

Win or lose, Tommy Mazzola and his team of 13 baseball players are enjoying the experience of playing in the Little League Baseball World Series.

Mazzola, a St. Clair Shores native and Lake Shore High School graduate, manages the Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores squad in the 16-team international field at the famed Williamsport, Pa., tournament that started Thursday and continues next week.

The team, representing the Great Lakes, lost its first game, 3-0 in extra innings, Friday against the West team, and was scheduled to play Saturday night against the Midwest team in the double elimination tourney. If the team wins Saturday, it will continue playing in the losers bracket Monday.

The team advanced by winning the state and regional tournaments, including a storybook walk-off home run in which Mazzola had a Tommy Maxey pinch-hit for his son, Jimmy, to make it to the regional final game.

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“It’s remarkable we’re here. It’s been a pretty special run,” Mazzola told The Macomb Daily in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon prior to the team’s game that night.

The team formed June 22, essentially an all-star team from the local 8-team league of 11- and 12-year-olds, but not a “travel team” that some of the competing squads are. It’s the first team from Michigan since 1998 and first from Grosse Pointe since 1979 to play in the event.

“Nearly from Day One, everybody has bought into the team concept, and, which sometimes can be more important, the parents have bought into it, too,” Mazzola said. “The kids are doing what is asked of them, and the coaches and I are doing a good job with the game plan. Everybody has a role on the team, and when they are called upon, nine out of 10 times they do well.”

The team includes 6-foot-2-inch Chad Lorkowski, who has garnered a great deal of media attention due to his size and fastball. Chad pitched well in the team’s 3-0 loss, but had a no-hitter thrown against him by West’s Grant Holman, who is 6-feet-3-inches tall.

Jimmy Mazzola plays shortstop and pitcher. The other top pitcher is Antonio Moceri.

Mazzola said the biggest challenges for him are juggling the pitchers and making sure every one of the 13 players gets at least one at-bat per game. Pitchers are restricted to 85 tosses every four days.

“We’ve got two great starting pitchers, a third pitcher who is pretty good, and we piece together the rest of the staff,” he said.

The spectacle of the World Series, which is televised on ESPN-TV, has been phenomenal, Mazzola said. Mazzola and other managers wear audio microphones during games.

“I’m standing here looking at hundreds of people waiting in line to get in,” he said. “It’s been unbelievable. ESPN Sportscenter is here. I did a press conference yesterday.

“This isn’t Major League Baseball, but they sure make you feel like it.”

Inserting a golf reference, he added, “This is the Augusta of Little League ball.”

The team’s coaches and players’ families all have made the trip to watch the tournament, although it has been “a financial strain” for some of them, he said. The Little League paid for expenses for the players and coaches for the regional tourney and World Series, but not for their families.

Mazzola’s wife and three other children have joined him in Williamsport, he said.

Mazzola runs a State Farm insurance agency at North Avenue and Hall Road in Macomb Township but said he hasn’t been at work in three weeks.

“I’m fortunately in a business that I can take time away,” he said. “Some of the dads aren’t able to do that.”

Picking up the slack at the office are other employees, such as office representative Maria Oliveri of Shelby Township.

“It’s been really exciting. We’re really proud of him,” she said. “I never really watched them play before. But we’ve watched on TV. I said, ‘Oh, he’s a good coach.’ ”